Scaffolder Terrance Murray faces up to 6 months in jail after being photographed by a retired HSE Inspector working 60 feet up on a scaffold in Manchester. Even more surprising is that the building he was working on housed the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) who are now involved in prosecuting the case against him! Scaffolder…
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Hand Arm Vibration (HAVS) is something which we have covered many times before but an area in which many still have a way to go. The following prosecution illustrates just how many are still getting it wrong and the suffering which is resulting from this. If you’re a safety advisor or manager within an organisation…
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You might well find the following report of interest if you’re in construction, particularly if you’re CDM Principal Designer. For those of you living in the South-west you might be interested to know that Bristol came second in the list for most enforcement notices issued under CDM 2015 (just behind Hammersmith in London)! We’ve just…
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With fines rising by orders of magnitude and custodial sentences being handed in more cases that ever before, businesses are feeling more exposed to risk from not managing safety effectively. They are also conscious that with uncertainty and costs rising plus a tough market, they need to balance cost against benefit wisely to remain competitive. …
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Almost all the people we know and work with struggle with knowing the right mix of safety aspects and operational aspects when planning work. We do have to get the job done, but let’s do it safely is a common phrase through industry and construction. However, every now and then we come across a case…
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This recent case involving a Bristol construction firm highlights two common misconceptions; You have to have an accident to get prosecuted and fined by the HSE; Most inspections come through random HSE visits. This case disproves both of these assumptions. Firstly, the case was prosecuted based on the risk of the breach rather than based…
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Formwork safety continues to be an area in which many sites could improve. There are a range of courses out there which give useful qualification and skills in the management of formwork and falsework risk. A good example of this would be the Temporary Works Supervisor Training Course (TWSTC) available from CITB. For more information…
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All of us have our pet subjects. Some of us do tend to bury our heads in the sand for areas in which we’re not as competent and Hand arm vibration syndrome (HAVS) is all too common an example. You may, if you are honest with yourself, have a hit list of subjects which you…
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We have to be truthful and admit that we sometimes carry out tasks which in hindsight we could have done with far less risk. It could be driving to work or what we do at home at the weekend away from the eyes of our colleagues and managers. The spray booth fire cited below is…
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We have seen health and safety fines rise by 10-15 x over their former levels since the Sentencing Guidelines were introduced in 2016 (see our earlier article for more information). In the past few months alone there have been a number of high value, high profile fines, including: Network Rail fined £4 million for the…
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